Industry - Cubesats

Full-Scale Solar Validation of CubeSats

Light a space dawn on the ground

Solar Simulation Trusted By These Companies

Test Your Satellite Under Full Spectrum Space Light

You’re making a small satellite, getting ready to launch it as a secondary payload into Low Earth Orbit. It’s carrying sun sensors, star trackers, attitude control subsystems, and solar cells to power it all. You’ve miniaturized your technology and want to make sure it’s all mission-ready.

You’re looking to test your entire CubeSat before it leaves the ground, and you need to trust the results.

You need a light source with high spectral fidelity to accurately assess solar charging. To correct anomalies and degradation pathways before orbit.

G2V’s LED solar simulators output large-area, full-spectrum light replicating conditions found in outer space and beyond, so you can confidently test your entire solution right here on Earth, for conditions anywhere you can imagine.

You’re reaching for the stars. We’ll provide the sun.

Featured Innovation

The Sunbrick Class AAA LED Solar Simulator

Better testing illuminates the future with higher-quality predictions.

Your CubeSat depends on sunlight, whether it’s in star trackers, failsafe recovery systems, or solar battery charging. It’s going to be bathed in unfiltered sunlight for a good portion of its operational life, and you need to know if your satellite infrastructure can handle the spotlight.

G2V’s Sunbrick Class AAA LED solar simulator provides full-spectrum AM0 sunlight in a large 20 cm x 20 cm area and is tileable into arrays of arbitrarily large sizes. Whether your CubeSat is a cube 10 cm long in each dimension, or larger, the Sunbrick can give you the high-quality space solar simulation you need.

Some of the Sunbrick’s features include:

Large Class A area of 20 cm x 20 cm, tileable to arbitrary sizes
Calibrated to AM0, AM1.5G and any supplied custom spectra
Automation-capable through Python API and LabView DLL

The Sunbrick gives you a full-scale space spectrum and trustworthy test results.

How New Standards Demand Higher Solar Simulator Quality

While you’re testing, you need to be conscientious of your budget, so every experiment counts. You need assurance that you’re getting the best test equipment for your money. The 2020 update to the IEC-60904-9 standard for solar simulators introduces two new metrics that raise the bar for solar simulators across the industry, allowing for increased transparency and the ability to differentiate passable solar simulators from exceptional ones. So you can get the best solar simulator and move quickly to your testing. Our comprehensive IEC-60904-9 article covers:

The two new metrics of spectral coverage and spectral deviation
The new A+ classification
Evaluation of several different industry solar simulators according to the new metrics

Featured Innovations

The Most Advanced Technology For Your Cutting Edge Research

You’re building something great. Our solar replication technologies mean you don’t have to worry about accurate light.

Entry-level pricing with industry-leading spectral coverage and low spectral deviation
Characterize your devices with terrestrial or extraterrestrial spectra
Optional IV and EQE modules aid in automating solar cell characterization
Optional Variable Spectra Module provides channel tunability for spectral signature investigation

Ground-test your cubesat with reliable, affordable sunlight.

Large Class A area of 20 cm by 20 cm (and larger) to fully illuminate your satellite
Automate testing cycles through Python API and LabView DLL
Up to 36 tunable LED channels to produce any Earthly or extrasolar spectrum
Low LED drive currents to maximize lifetime and reliability

Accurate Star Tracking for CNES Engineers

Problem: CNES, France’s space agency was developing the star tracker for the rover of the 2024 Martian Moon eXploration (MMX) mission, and needed an accurate way to ground-test this vital part of their attitude and orbital control (AOCS) subsystem.

Innovation: G2V provided CNES with a large-area, yet compact, solar simulator that could fully illuminate their devices, with the freedom of high spectral tunability.

Outcome: CNES engineers were able to individually tune LED channels to probe device sensitivity under different illumination conditions. They made a custom jig for testing at different angles and were so happy with the results that they quickly loaned the instrument to colleagues for their work on solar modules.

G2V's FAQs

Do your solar simulators include a shutter?

No. Typically our customers turn the solar simulator’s output off and on. The short LED warmup time and absence of excess thermal emission mitigate the need for a shutter for many users.

What UV protection do I need for your solar simulators?

The answer depends somewhat on the product model in consideration. For any product models that only cover wavelengths from 400 nm and above, no UV protection is needed, although we do recommend safety goggles for the strong blue light (and for many of the same reasons you wouldn’t stare at the sun). For solar simulators that include 350 nm – 400 nm coverage, we recommend wearing protective clothing or goggles for any body parts that may be under the simulator’s irradiance for longer than the allowable maximum exposure times. Note that our solar simulator is NOT designed for human exposure.

Can you produce the spectrum in space, AM0?

Yes! We provide AM0 calibration with all of our solar simulators.

What are the highest and lowest wavelengths your solar simulators can produce?

Our maximum spectral range is currently from 350 nm to 1500 nm. While there are some LEDs that reach higher and lower wavelengths, their performance and cost are not quite at the level needed for a robust and competitive solar simulator solution. G2V is always monitoring LED material developments, however, so if a wider spectral range is needed for your application, get in touch and we can discuss the possibility of a custom solution, or the inclusion of such a solution in our product roadmap.

Knowledge Base

Our Expertise. Your Home Base.

We make sure that our customers have access to resources that help them understand more not only about the products we offer, but related applications and standards. Visit the knowledge base to learn more about LED illumination, Class AAA standards, Photovoltaics and much more. Knowledge is solar power.

IEC 60904-9:2020 Standard for Solar Simulators

In our modern era, nearly every industry has standards that set baselines for ensuring its associated products are safe and suitable to perform intended tasks. Solar simulation – reproducing sunlight – is no different, having standards that specify the requirements for solar simulators, and...

Testing Aerospace Attitude and Orbit Control Systems (AOCS) with a High-Quality Modular Solar Simulator

G2V and NREL collaborate to Validate LED Solar Simulators and improve Multi-Junction Testing

Solar Simulation

Talk to a Space Light Expert About Your Launch

Whether you’re developing a satellite to vet new spacecraft instrumentation, or preparing to set up a multi-satellite network for reliable space-to-ground data communication, you need a good solar testing solution.

You’re excited about your boundary-pushing work, and you’re passionate about minimizing risk and getting the details right. We share this same enthusiasm and strongly believe in customer relations as a partnership where we can achieve the best results together.

Get in touch so we can discuss how we can help your satellites detumble through better test equipment.